New York (CNNMoney) - Taxes. They've become the most controversial issue in the debt ceiling talks.

Republicans say President Obama wants to enact "job killing" tax hikes "now." Obama says that's not so: He says his tax increases would be targeted so as not to hurt the economy and would not take effect until 2013.

(CNN) - Former Democratic New York Mayor Ed Koch said Tuesday he wants Republicans to take the district formerly represented by Rep. Anthony Weiner–a seat held by Democrats for decades.

Expressing outrage over President Barack Obama's views on Israel, Koch warned in an interview that the Sept. 13 special election to replace Weiner could become a bellwether on the president's recent calls for Israel to return to its 1967 borders with land swaps.FULL POST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – President Obama issued a broadside Tuesday in the debt ceiling debate, saying in a high-profile interview that he cannot ensure government benefits - including Social Security - will be paid if Congress fails to act.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Obama told CBS News.

Greenville, South Carolina (CNN) - The day after former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman opened up a new line of attack against his Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney, the Huntsman campaign stayed on offense, calling the former Massachusetts governor's track record on job creation "abysmal by every standard."

The sharp statement from a Huntsman spokesman was sparked by the Romney campaign's defense of his jobs record in Massachusetts, which has come under attack in recent days by Democrats, and now Huntsman.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - GOP leaders insisted Tuesday they will not yield to Democratic demands for tax increases on the wealthy as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, bringing new doubts about the ability of Washington to pay all of its bills next month.

President Barack Obama, in a CBS News interview scheduled to air Tuesday night, warned that, absent a deal, he can't guarantee older Americans will continue to receive their Social Security checks.

Washington (CNN)– Despite rhetoric to the contrary, congressional negotiators recognize the need to raise the federal debt ceiling and that "there has to be a compromise" in deficit reduction talks with President Barack Obama, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday.FULL POST

(CNN) – For the second straight day, Republican presidential candidate and Rep. Michele Bachmann's at the top of a new poll of likely Iowa GOP caucus goers.

According to a survey from the American Research Group, 21 percent of people questioned say they are backing the congresswoman from neighboring Minnesota for the GOP presidential nomination in their state's caucuses. Bachmann was at nine percent in ARG's April poll.FULL POST

Washington (CNNMoney) - Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Tuesday that he wants a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut the budget by the end of this week - or next week at the latest - to give Congress enough time to turn the deal into law.

"We know we don't have a lot of time, and we want to wrap up the broad outlines of the agreement by the end of this week, certainly by the end of next week," Geithner said at the Women in Finance Symposium at the Treasury Department.

"As long as this president is in the Oval Office a real solution (to the country's fiscal problems) is unattainable," McConnell said. Barack Obama "will do almost anything to protect the size and the scope of Washington D.C.'s burgeoning bureaucracy."FULL POST